Just after he announced Monday that the Senate Democrats’ health care bill would include a public option with an opt-out provision, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Sen. Olympia Snowe to say he hoped she’d get behind the plan.

Good luck with that.

Asked Tuesday what Reid would have to change in his bill to get her vote, Snowe said: “the whole thing.”

The Maine Republican caught herself later, saying she didn’t want to address a “hypothetical” about how she’d vote at the end of a process that’s just beginning. But Snowe — the only Republican on Capitol Hill to vote for a Democratic health care bill this year — also hinted that the beginning may be the end, saying she would likely vote to block the Senate from even commencing debate on Reid’s bill.

Her reason: “You’ll need 60 votes just to change anything on the floor. That’s the problem that I raised with the leader to begin with.”

Snowe’s opposition is a problem for Reid, but it’s hardly the only one. To get the 60 votes he needs to open debate on the bill and then again to get to a floor vote, Reid will need to start reining in the moderate Democrats on his own side of the aisle.

Here’s where some of the toughest votes stand now:

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.: The senator poured cold water on Reid’s plan Tuesday by saying he’d back a GOP filibuster if the bill isn’t changed by the end of the Senate debate. While Lieberman said he would allow the debate to begin, he’s opposed to Reid’s opt-out proposal and seemed to be just as cool toward Snowe’s alternative trigger plan.

The fallout on Lieberman will be intense, given that he’s already been a pariah on the left for his hawkish posture toward the Iraq war and his support for Republican Sen. John McCain over then-Democratic Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

Lieberman is either posturing or he’s foreshadowing the likelihood that Reid will have to drop the opt-out from the bill.

“I’m sure I won’t be alone,” Lieberman said of opposition from Senate Democrats. But he also said he’ll be “prepared” to go it alone if necessary.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.: Lincoln is facing a tough re-election in a red state that Obama lost by 20 percentage points last year. She told the Arkansas Farm Bureau on Tuesday that “if it’s government-run or government-funded, I’m going to have tremendous troubles with being able to support moving forward on something like that.”

When asked if Lincoln would vote to break a filibuster aimed at preventing the debate from starting, a Lincoln aide said she “has not committed her vote to anyone,” adding that she wants to see the legislative language and cost first.

MoveOn.org says that 93 percent of its Arkansas members won’t vote for Lincoln if she joins a GOP filibuster, and it plans to hold news conferences outside her district office — along with the district offices of Snowe, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. — to argue the public option would help her state. But a reversal by Lincoln could turn off the business community, including the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which praised her for voting against a public option in the Finance Committee.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.: How Lincoln ends up voting could very well influence Pryor, even though he just won another six-year term in 2008.

“I’ll be talking to her throughout this process,” Pryor said Tuesday.

Pryor said that his “inclination” would be to vote for the procedural motions to advance the health care debate but that he’s told Reid that he’s “making no commitments” on final passage.

Pryor added that it’s “important for states to have the ability to not have the public option if that’s what they choose” and said that he wants to make sure that language is “workable.”

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.: Perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, Nelson said Tuesday that it’s too soon to say how he’ll vote and he wanted to see the official cost estimate and language.

Asked if he could support Reid’s opt-out plan, Nelson said: “What is it? Have you read it? I’m not being feisty here. But nobody has read it other than the leader and some staff. That is the point.”

Nelson has come under tremendous pressure from both the left and the right and doesn’t face voters until 2012. While MoveOn.org pushes Nelson to back the bill, Americans for Tax Reform has launched ads arguing that if Nelson votes for health reform, he’ll be violating his pledge not to raise taxes.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.: Democratic leaders should be able to tell where Bayh is headed based on his vote on whether to move to a debate. The Indiana Democrat said Tuesday that he doesn’t see “much difference between process and policy,” and that he’ll be “looking at those two things as one and the same.”

But Bayh said Tuesday that he’s not as concerned with the public option, saying he’s “more focused on, is this fiscally responsible and what does this mean in terms of the premiums average families pay for those who now have insurance.” Bayh said Reid’s decision to reduce new fees on medical device makers has put his vote in play.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.: Landrieu might have just won re-election, but she consistently positions herself in the middle of her caucus — and is now “very skeptical” about the Reid plan.

She refused to say whether she would even vote to begin debate, saying she was “going to continue to work on a principled compromise.”

And she already is getting pummeled by liberal activists in her state, with Move-On.org‘s 30,000 Louisiana members promising to give no more help to Landrieu if she withholds her support.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

The return of winter brought frigid temperatures to the Twin Cities last weekend. Now it’s poised to bring some snow, which could affect Tuesday’s morning and evening commutes. The National Weather Service said travel impacts were likely late Monday and early Tuesday as a wintry mix of snow and freezing drizzle develops across southern Minnesota. The precipitation is expected to...

Skyway Grill, the burger counter in the St. Paul skyway, will be staying open late to offer delivery service to two downtown taprooms. Customers of 12welve Eyes and Stacked Deck breweries can order from the restaurant’s large selection of burgers, appetizers -- duck bacon wontons, Southwestern chicken fritters and poutine -- and sides by phone, and they’ll deliver from 3...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris, a first-term senator and former California attorney general known for her rigorous questioning of President Donald Trump's nominees, entered the Democratic presidential race on Monday. Harris would be the first woman to hold the presidency and the second African-American.

Things appear to be cool for the Art Shanty Projects next winter and in 2021. The interactive art installation that has set up a village of fish-house-type artist-designed shanties on Twin Cities lakes during the winter since 2007, ran into financial troubles and had to cancel for 2019. But Art Shanty Projects announced Monday that it had received "a significant anonymous...

SUPERIOR, Wis. - One man was killed Monday morning when the vehicle he was driving went over the side of a viaduct in Superior. The vehicle, traveling west on Belknap Street, went over the north side of the bridge railing and fell approximately 35 feet to the ground, killing the driver, a 60-year-old rural Superior man. The crash was reported...